Sometimes, our failures make us to live life. In a hymn that's become familiar to Christians around the world, the songwriter admits, Lord, I'm prone to wander, prone to leave the God I love. And those lyrics resonate with most of us because we too feel the same gravitational pull, when our devotion to God is overpowered by sinful distractions. Well today on Insight for Living, Chuck helps us confront our inclination to wander.
And in case you missed any part of yesterday's message, we'll begin with helpful highlights. Teaching from Matthew chapter 6, Chuck titled this study, The Lure of a Lesser Loyalty. Jesus begins with a warning.
Do not. Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth. And verse 20, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven. There's a contrast. There's a difference between possessions on earth and possessions that are in heaven.
And the contrast is even seen in how they can be destroyed or preserved. Treasures on earth are where moth and rust destroy and thieves break in and steal. But when you have treasures in heaven, none of the three occurs. There are no moths. There is no rust.
There will be no thieves. So that contrast stands. Look at verse 22, the eye is the lamp of the body if your eye is clear.
Well that's one thing, but look at the contrast. If your eye is bad, that's the next verse. Verse 22, a clear eye is full of light.
A bad eye is full of darkness. He's warning his followers about being caught up in a lesser loyalty. In this case, the last word of the passage, verse 24, is wealth, possessions, stuff, tangible things we can purchase and own and must maintain.
Now understand the difference. Some people read these words and they warn about Jesus prohibiting against having any possessions. Nowhere in the Bible are we forbidden from owning something.
That's not what Jesus is teaching. The Bible again and again encourages wise planning and being careful with possessions. He's not even warning against enjoying possessions. My mind flashes to 1 Timothy 6, verse 17, where the apostle writes that God has given us all things richly to enjoy.
Enjoy them. What's he warning against? He's denouncing the accumulation of more and more and more stuff. He's warning against selfishness. He's concerned about an extravagant lifestyle that keeps you from being generous and unselfish.
In fact, he's warning some of you today. Truth be told, you find yourself making more than you've ever made, able to buy what your parents could never have bought, living in a home nicer than you ever grew up in. Nothing wrong with any of that until or if those things begin to grip and hold onto you and turn you into a tight-fisted, selfish, uncaring individual who doesn't know the meaning of the word enough.
Jesus' warning is to those who don't know to say that's enough. Are you satisfied with where you are? It's called contentment. It's one of the greatest joys of life is to live a contented life. It may be with little, it may be with more, it may be with much.
You're contented. It doesn't own you. You use it, you share it, and when it's appropriate, you give it. Jesus is saying don't store it up. Don't cling to it. But remember what's valuable, verse 21, where your treasure is, there your heart is. So where's your heart? Oh, you know what's interesting? I can't answer for you.
I can't even tell by looking. If I were around you for a while, I might be able to discern a little bit, but honestly, only you know where your heart is, which gives me a good moment to pause for some application here. A few questions just to help you probe and let the word of God dig deeply. Are you living your life unselfishly? Do you demonstrate generosity and care when you have an opportunity to do so? Have you determined what is enough for you? Are you allowing things to lure you from what is invaluable? You can't put a price tag on things that are really valuable. And you have to always guard against greed.
Only you can know if your heart is greedy. Jesus' teaching is designed to help us analyze that. And while we're on the subject, look at 22. The eye is the lamp of the body. See, it's from the eye gate that you're able to view life. And if the eye is clear, your whole body is full of light. If you're seeing things as they really are, which means you place just as much emphasis on the invisible as the visible, and you acknowledge the presence of that which cannot be purchased, but is a treasure, your eye is clear. If your eye is bad, then everything is full of darkness. And how great is the darkness?
How blind we can be. Now look at the last verse. No one. Now that includes you, that includes me. It means no one.
Not a person alive on the planet. No one can serve two masters. And then there's a contrast. Either you'll hate one of them and love the other, or you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot be owned by two, only one. And I want to warn you in case you have gotten a little bit disillusioned, wealth is a wicked master. Nothing wrong with wealth. Some of the greatest people in the Bible were wealthy.
Job is one. No one better known in the community or perhaps in the whole region. And probably no one with greater wealth.
Had more animals, had more land, had more servants than anyone. He's never criticized for that. He's called a righteous man. He never lost sight of what's valuable. But when you make wealth your master, you will soon be lured to that loyalty. And it'll change you. You'll be different. You become greedy. You become competitive, envious. Don't think you have to be wealthy to be envious.
It works for any strata economically. But when you and I allow the truth to guide us, by that I would say the teachings of Jesus, he helps us take control of our lives. I remember meeting a young man whom I had known for some time. He had finished his schooling at a very prestigious university. In fact, he had finished law school and was right on the verge, he had passed the bar, he was right on the verge of a career in law. I pulled him aside and I called his name and I said to him, what do you plan to do with all this great training? He said, without hesitation, didn't know I was going to ask him that, his answer was incredible. He said, well, I want to be a man of integrity who practices law with excellence.
How good is that? Character first, career second. You see, many of you were not raised like that. I mean this in the right sense, I feel sorry for every one of you who wasn't raised by parents of character. It was our privilege as Cynthia and I were little children growing up under the tutelage of parents who were far from perfect, far from it. But they were people of character. They had lived through world wars, they had been humbled by the loss of loved ones, broken, many of them, in our neighborhood with hardly enough to get by.
When the war ended, we noticed that they weren't proud, they were grateful. I was raised with that. There's no place for pride. Life isn't about you, son. It's about your God.
You fit into his plan. This is what made me so impressed with the young man's answer. By the way, commencement comes every year. It's a perfect time for evaluation.
This is an especially soul-searching time if you have earned a degree that will soon move you into a lucrative career. Careful. Nothing wrong with that.
Absolutely nothing wrong with it. Just guard your heart. Be careful about where your treasure is. And remember, if you make more than you need, it's to give it away.
It's to share it. I think that man is a perfect example of what that's all about. Two things I say in closing, and they both have to do with the security of living our lives in light of the truth. Whether you were raised with character people or not, it's never too late to start doing what's right.
You can begin to build a life of character right here in the roots of the Scriptures. But first, our options remain open. You'd go any way you want, but I'll tell you the secret is making the right choices in life. You have options just like those next to you have options, and you can choose whichever way you choose to go. But I will tell you there is a price to pay if you choose wrongly.
Make the right choices. It's a good time for me to add that temptation has no age limit. You may be walking with God at age 60 or 70. It doesn't mean you're going to be walking with him at 80.
It has no age limit. Sobering, isn't it? You don't reach the place where you no longer can be lured to that lesser loyalty. Others may not even know it.
After all, at your age, who would even think that you're being lured? I remember reading about Dr. Will Houghton. He was at the time president of Moody Bible Institute. He was speaking to the student body, surrounded by the youth of his day, and he shared with them an experience he had had with the aging James M. Gray, former president of the school. He and Dr. Gray had gotten together and Will and he had shared things from similar backgrounds, and finally before they left, Houghton said that Dr. Gray made the comment, I'd like to pray before we depart from each other, and Houghton said he was shocked to hear his dignified colleagues say in his prayer, Oh God, don't let me become a wicked old man. It's a great prayer. Oh God, don't let me become a wicked grandfather or great grandfather. No one is immune to erosion.
Here's the second thought. Our focus stays clear when we're living like this, but the secret, we keep serving the right master. We keep serving the right master.
I urge you to evaluate the one you're following, the one you're patterning your life after, so easy to slip and slide. It happened to Robert Robinson over 250 years ago. He was born in England, mother died when he was very young, our father died when he was very young and his mother felt that he should learn a trade, so she sent him off to London where he fell in with some guys that weren't good for him and began to move down the wrong track unlike he had been reared. Disturbed over his doing that, he heard that George Whitefield was in the city and was preaching and he wanted his buddies to go with him that night to listen to Whitefield as he preached. They didn't want to go, so he went alone and he heard the truth of the Gospel, turned his life over to Christ. As a matter of fact, he went into ministry and by the age of 25, he was the pastor of a church in Cambridge that grew and gained a reputation for being a lighthouse. However, somewhere along the line, he began to drift. And even though Robinson had been used to preach strong sermons, even compose some music, he was now following the lure of a lesser loyalty. Richard Suomi in his book Shoes for the Road tells of an event in Robinson's life.
It came about in the old coaching days. A lady is seated on the stagecoach next to Robinson. She's reading a little book with evident enjoyment. One page of that volume held special appeal to her. She consulted it from time to time and sometimes read it aloud. Turning to her fellow passenger, not knowing him, a stranger to her, she presumed he was acquainted with the subject of religion. She held the open page before him and pointed to the hymn.
She'd been reading and asked what he thought of it. The stranger looked at the first few lines. Come, thou fount of every blessing. Tune my heart to sing thy grace. Streams of mercy never ceasing, call for songs of loudest praise. And the stranger read no further.
Turned away, endeavoring to engage the lady's attention in something else, but she was not to be denied. Venturing another appeal, she told the man of the benefit she had received from the hymn and expressed her admiration for its message. With that overcome beyond the power of controlling his feelings, he burst into tears. Madam, he said, I'm the poor, unhappy man who wrote that hymn many years ago.
I'd give a thousand worlds if I had them to enjoy the feelings I had back then. Robert Robinson, who wrote the words, prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love, had in fact done just that. Oh, to grace how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be. Let thy goodness like a fetter bind my wandering heart to thee.
Great prayer, but only as effective as your choices. And that's why I believe God brings us to moments like this, where you have a chance to search your own soul and identify your master. Like the man who wrote, I'd walk life's way with an easy tread. I'd travel for pleasures and comfort led until one day in a quiet place, I met the master face to face. With station and rank and wealth for my goal, much thought for my body but none for my soul, I'd vowed to win this life's mad race when I met the master face to face. I built my castles and reared them high till the towers had pierced the blue of the sky. I'd sworn to rule with an iron mace when I met my master face to face. I met him, I knew him, and I blushed to see that his eyes full of sorrow were fixed upon me. I faltered and I fell at his feet that day while my castles melted and vanished away.
Melted and vanished and in their place, nothing else stood but my master's face. My thoughts are now for the souls of men. I've lost my life to find it again ever since that day in a quiet place when I met the master face to face. That's my invitation for you today. And I speak to you whose name I couldn't call, whose life I've never examined, but it's an open book before God. It's a great moment to stop the allurement and to return to the master. Bow with me, will you?
Close your eyes, please. Where are you in this message? In what part of the story do you find yourself? Are you on the stagecoach, having already drifted, living in a way you know is wrong, but not yet turned around? Or maybe you're on the edge, like Robert Robinson was at one point of his ministry, toying with things that were, well, they were sinful. Sin will keep you longer than you want to stay, remember?
It'll cost you more than you want to pay. It's a great moment for you to say, Lord God, here I am. You know me, you know where I've been, you know the condition of my heart. You may say I'm coming back, others of you may say I'm coming for the first time, but I'm coming. He's going to be my master. I'm going to follow his lead.
I invite him to own me. We exist in this church to help people just like you. We'll never judge you, we'll never point a finger of accusation, we'll accept you as you are, we'll help you become what you've always wanted to be. It begins with a cross where you turn your life over to Christ. But what you don't want to do is to walk out and leave everything the same. God ordained that you hear these words today, that you might make the right decision regarding tomorrow.
Come now. Prone to wander, Lord, we feel it. Prone to leave the God we love. There isn't a day when we're safe from the adversary's darts.
There's not a time when we're immune to the subtle, silent magnet of erosion. I pray for those today teetering on the edge of a decision. May they turn to you, Father. May they come today to Christ. And may this decision be life-changing for those who do. In the name of the Master, we pray, even Jesus.
Everyone said, Amen. With his closing prayer, Chuck Swindoll concludes his three-day study titled, The Lure of a Lesser Loyalty. You're listening to Insight for Living. To learn more about this ministry or these messages, please visit us online at insightworld.org. Today's stern warning from Jesus about serving two masters certainly causes us to check our motives whenever we're tempted to split our affections between following God and chasing after financial gain. As we conclude today's program, we thought you'd be encouraged to hear this first-hand story from one of your fellow listeners. It reinforces the impact of submitting ourselves to a simple faith, as Jesus defined it, wherever that might lead us. We recently received a note that said, Chuck, I've been listening to Insight for Living since I was around 12 years old.
That was 38 years ago. I cannot even begin to express how your ministry has impacted my life. I currently live in Kazakhstan, working with single mothers, children with special needs, at-risk families, and orphans, seeking to build into their lives with His love and hope.
Yesterday, I was driving home and listening to my local home station, which is actually the internet. What a joy to be able to access your teaching from over 6,000 miles and 11 time zones away. Thank you for influencing my life and being faithful to the solid teachings of Jesus and bringing His truth throughout the world.
I likely would not be doing what I'm doing had it not been for the influence of Insight for Living. May God continue to richly bless your ministry. Well, if you're among those who financially support Chuck's teaching ministry, rest assured that God is using your generosity to reach listeners like this one in Kazakhstan. And we deeply appreciate your much needed partnership.
We couldn't do this without you. To give a donation today, dial this number, 1-800-772-8888. Again, that's 1-800-772-8888. To give a donation online, go to Insight.org. Tomorrow, Chuck Swindoll describes what he calls our favorite sin. Any guesses? Hear the answer Friday on Insight for Living. The preceding message, The Lure of a Lesser Loyalty, was copyrighted in 2015 and 2021, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2021 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.
